Apbjl 10, 1890.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



231 



THE SALMON OF ALASKA. 



{.Concluded from Pane ill.] 



rHE marine life of the Alaskan salmon is unknown 

 from the time the young, in their newly acquired 

 livery dress, leave the fresh water nursery to become 

 alt water sailors until they have ended their cruise, ob- 

 lined their liberty and come ashore, when, as in the 

 ase of so many other salt water sailors, their serious 

 rouble begins. Salmon remain in fresh water until the 

 jcond or third spring of their existence, and not having 

 bountiful supply of food, they grow very slowly and 

 jldom exceed 8in. in length when they start seaward. 

 1 the ocean they feed on the capelin, the herring, and a 

 nail needle-shaped fish called the lant. They are re- 

 nted also to consume large quantities of pink-fleshed 

 •ustaceans and derive from them their attractive color, 

 pposed to this theory is the fact that many other sea 

 shes whose food consists almost entirely of such crusta- 

 t&ns are never pink-fleshed. There is no fishery at sea 

 )T any of the Pacific salmons, as there is in the Baltic 

 >r the Atlantic salmon. After the great schools are 

 •oken up and the scattered fish come into the bays, some 

 ! the species can be caught on a herring-baited hook by 

 oiling. The king and silver salmon are captured in this 

 ay. As a rule the fish remain at sea until they are 

 50ut ready to deposit their eggs, and then they approach 

 le coast in great masses. A few young males aeeom- 



slime has been removed. Both sexes in all the species 

 take part in the building operations, and the. male especi- 

 ally guards the nest, Turner states that the silver sal- 

 mon use their snouts in collecting material for the nests, 

 and he has seen them with the nose worn off completely. 

 The red salmon spawns around the shores of deep, cool 

 lakes and in their small tributaries, preferring waters 

 whose highest temperature rarely exceeds 55'. The nest 

 is a shallow circular pile of stones abrn.it as large as a 

 man's hand, and some of them smaller. The eggs are 

 placed in the crevices between the stones. The enemies 

 of the salmon are numerous. Small fish culled sculpins, 

 or miller's thumbs, swarm in the nests and eat large quan- 

 tities of the eggs. Trout devour great numbers of eggs 

 and young salmon. Gulls, terns, loons and other birds 

 gorge themselves with the tender fry. When the young 

 approach the sea they must run a cruel gauntlet of 

 flounders, sculpins and trout, and iu the ocean a larger 

 and greedier horde confronts them. The adults are at- 

 tacked by seals and sea lions. Before they have fairly 

 entered the rivers huge nets are hauling them to the 

 shore almost every minute of the day during six days in 

 a week. When they return to their spawning grounds 

 bears are waiting to snatch them from the water and de- 

 vour them alive. The salmon, it appears, would have 

 been vastly better off had it never been born in fresh 

 water, where its dangers are cumulative and deadly. 

 The methods of taking salmon are many and Various, 



in a day. A first-class cannery can use about 20,000 red 

 salmon daily. After the salmon are caught, they are 

 carried in dories and other boats along the beach and 

 through the river mouth to the cleaning houses on the 

 river bank, or when it is too rough, they are taken across 

 the spit in Hand-barrows. Large lighters and scows are 

 also used as fish carriers, and these are towed by steam 

 launches. In (he cleaning houses the salmon are pre- 

 pared for the cannery by cutting off the heads and fins 

 and removing the viscera. Then they are washed and 

 finally thrown into hand-carts, to be hauled into the can- 

 nery, where they pass through various processes, almost 

 all of which are carried on by machinery. First they are 

 cut into lengths suitable to the size of the can. These 

 pieces are carried along and fed into cans, inequalities in 

 the filling "being supplied by hand work. The cans are 

 then topped in the topping machine, from which they 

 pass to the soldering machine, and then follow the pro- 

 cesses of venting, cooking, steaming in great retorts, cool- 

 ing, japanning and labeling. The cans are then boxed 

 and stored in warehouses until a cargo is accumulated, 

 and then, by means of scows and lighters, towed by steam 

 launches, they are carried to vessels lying in the road- 

 stead and soon start upon a voyage to San Francisco, 

 Portland and Astoria, and eventually toother sides of the 

 globe, for these are the greatest globe-trotters of modern 

 times. 



Thirty-six canneries were operated in Alaska in 1889, 



Qtjinnat Salmon, 



Bluebaok Salmon— Hook- Jawed Male. 



Dog Salmon. 



iny the schools every year, and may or 

 tay not return to the sea without entering 

 ie rivers. The adult fish come up from 

 le sea at a certain time of the year, the 

 ing salmon arriving first, in the month of 

 ay in southern Alaska, and about the 6th 

 f June in Norton Sound. The dog salmon 

 ad the red salmon appear in June, the 

 umpback in July and the silver salmon in 

 ugust. The length of their stay at the 

 ver mouths before ascending, and the rate 

 : ascent to the spawning grounds, depend 

 pon the urgency of the breeding condition, 

 l the long rivers the king salmon travels 

 om 20 to 40 miles a day ; this species and 

 ie red salmon are reputed to be the great- 

 it travelers. The silver and dog salmons, 

 owever, are recorded by Dr. Dall as ascending the 

 ukon at least 1,000 miles. Asa rule they frequent the 

 nailer streams, and the little humpback runs into mere 

 vulets. 



From the time the salmon enters fresh water it begins 

 ) deteriorate in flesh and undergoes remarkable changes 

 l form and colors. Arriving as a shapely fish clad in 

 lining silvery scales, and with its flesh orange or red, it 

 lays around for a little while between salt water and 

 :esh, and then begins its long fast and its wearisome 

 )urney. No food, is taken and there are shoals, rapids, 

 ad sometimes cateracts to be surmounted, but the sal- 

 ton falters not, nor can it be prevented from accomplish- 

 ig its mission by anything but death or an impassable 

 arrier. Its body soon becomes thin and lacerated, and 

 s fins are worn to shreds by contact with sharp rocks. 

 i the males a great hump is developed on the back 

 ehind the head, and the jaws are lengthened and dis- 

 jrted so that the mouth cannot be closed. The wounded 

 sh are soon attacked by the fungus and progress from 

 ad to worse until they become unsightly. In the mean- 

 ; me the body colors will have varied from dark gray in 

 ie humpback, with the lower parts milky white, to a 

 rilliant vermilion in the red salmon, contrasting beauti- 

 ally with the rich olive green of its head. The excessive 

 lortality of salmon during the ascent of the streams and 

 n the breeding grounds has led to the belief that none of 

 ie spawning fish leave the fresh water alive. There is a 

 abstantial basis for this view in the long rivers, and it is 

 oubtless true that a journey of 500 miles or more is fol- 

 )wed by the death of all the salmon concerned in it. 



The nest is a very simple affair, or it may be wanting, 

 'he humpback struggles and crowds up a few rods 

 rom the sea and deposits its eggs between crevices in 

 be boulders covering the bottom, or sometimes they are 

 trewn in thin layers over a large area in shallow water 

 pith out covering of any kind. The king salmon seeks 

 he headwaters of streams, and excavates a nest in clear, 

 hallow, gravelly rapids. The dog salmon spawns in 

 mall rivers and creeks. The silver salmon does not usu- 

 ,lly ascend streams to a great distance, and I have seen 

 t return to salt water alive after spawning. The nest is 

 aade among gravel and stones from which all dirt and 



.Silver Salmon. 



as might be expected from the extent of the territory 

 and the variety of its fishing population. Arrows and 

 spears are still employed by the natives, and trolling 

 hooks are successfully 'used in certain bays, but all of 

 these partake more or less of the character of angling re- 

 finements. The dip-net, the seine and the gill net are 

 universally applied, the latter even in winter fishing 

 under the ice. Baskets and traps of several kinds are 

 very useful in river fisheries, particularly in winter. 

 Dr. Dall has given a full description and figures of traps 

 constructed by Indian tribes of the Yukon and the ad- 

 jacent region; these will be found in the report of the 

 Department of Agriculture for 1870. Fish traps of 

 modern type are freely and, it is said, injuriously, used in 

 some parts of Alaska by white fishermen, the injury 

 charged being that of preventing the ascent of the spawn- 

 ing salmon. The Russians built impassable racks of 

 timbers and rocks, which enabled them to kill every 

 salmon that came into the streams if they desired. These 

 were called zapors, and have been legislated out of ex- 

 istence, we trust. It was doubtless picturesque in the 

 early days to see an Aleut standing on the crib-work of 

 the zapor with his spear gracefully poised and ready to 

 transfix the silvery salmon, but it was like the boy's sport 

 with the frog, and we are glad it is ended. The great 

 bulk of the salmon now caught in Alaska are taken in 

 seines varying from 600 to 1,500ft. in length, and many 

 of them 20ft. deep. The mesh is generally about 3-jrin. 

 The seines are set. from seine-boats, similar to those used 

 for shad on the Potomac, and are hauled by from twenty 

 to thirty men. Experience has shown that windlasses 

 and similar appliances for saving labor are undesirable 

 adjuncts of the fishery at least on Kadiak, where the 

 seining is almost entirely limited to salt water. Fishing- 

 goes on at Kadiak six days in the week, subject only to 

 the presence of salmon and the suitability of the weather. 

 Night does not stop the work excep/t for a few hours, as 

 it is short in this latitude. 



At Karluk, the principal red salmon station in Alaska, 

 the seining beach is less than half a mile long, and the 

 seiners are obliged to wait their turns to set. Several 

 seines are in the water almost constantly, one behind the 

 other, Upward of 150,000 salmen have been taken here 



Humpback Salmon. 



located principally in the southern part of 

 the Territory, none of >them north of the 

 Nushagak River, in the British Bay region. 

 Nearly one-third were established on the 

 Kadiak group of islands, and those secured 

 fully one-half of the Alaskan catch. 



Sixty -six vessels were engaged in carry- 

 ing the equipment and workmen for these 

 canneries, and the products of their indus- 

 try. There were lo steamers, -1 steam 

 schooners, 1 ship, 13 barks, 2 brigs, 10 bar- 

 kentines and 28 schooners. Hundreds of 

 boats of various kinds — dories, seine-boats, 

 Columbia River boats, besides scows, 

 lighters and steam launches are employed 

 in the business. The seining is done chiefly 

 by white men and the work inside the 

 canneries by Chinese. It is estimated that 4,000 men 

 are engaged in the salmon fishery in Alaska. The 

 capital invested in 1889 was nearly $4,000,000 and the 

 value of the pack at an average price of $5 a case, was 

 about .$3,000,000. 



Is this tremendous drain of 8,500,000 salmon in a 

 year likely to endanger the food supply of the natives? 

 At present many of the Alaskans work for the fishing 

 companies and receive more than they could earn if left 

 to themselves. Again, the dog salmon and the hump- 

 back, which are the most abundant of the species and 

 the most valuable for the natives, are not yet important 

 commercially. Canneries have not extended their opera- 

 tions north of the Nushagak, and the territory beyond 

 this river teems with all the kinds of Pacific salmon, and 

 especially with the two preferred by natives. 



Will this industry decline in value from year to year 

 as it has on some of the more southern rivers? Un- 

 doubtedly it will if over-fishing and injurious methods 

 are continued. Impassable barriers obstructing the 

 ascent of breeding fish will unquestionably exterminate 

 the species in a few years. Continual seining across the 

 mouths of rivers will certainly hasten the same unfor- 

 timate result. The necessity of protecting this valuable 

 resource must be apparent to every intelligent person. 

 Alaska to-day furnishes one-half of the American yield 

 of salmon, and it will be our own fault if the industry is 

 destroyed. We must regulate the fishing by suitable 

 laws and refuse injurious privileges on Government 

 lands. The supply must be kept up and increased also 

 by artificial propagation. Fishculture cannot find a more 

 promising field or a more propitious and urgent occasion . 

 There are still plenty of breeding salmon, sheltered har= 

 bors in accessible localities, rivers not subject to exces- 

 sive fluctuations of level and not obstructed by natural 

 barriers, and unlimited supplies of suitable water to be 

 conveyed by gravitation alone. Materials, labor and 

 transportation are cheap. There are no dams, no mill 

 refuse, no pollutions from sewers and factories. The 

 climate is favorable and the population is in sympathy 

 with nshcultural work. Surely here is an opportunity 

 not to be neglected, and the time to improve it is— now. 



T, H. Bean, 



